Literature and Art.
in
I03
a helmet in his hand to {how the meaning of the fatire, his own helmet,
which he wears on his head, is {imply a bellows. He may be a knight
of the kitchen, or perhaps a mere qujfiron, or kitchen lad.
We have juft feen a caricature of one of the ]adies' head-dreifes of the
earlier half of the fifteenth century, and our cut N 0. 69, from an illuminated
manufcript in the Britilh Mufeum of the latter half of
the fame century (MS. Harl., No. 4-3 79), fllfflifhes "jg;
us with a caricature of a head-dreis of a different
character, which came into faihion in the reign of our
Edward IV. The horned head-drek of the previous A
generation had been entirely laid afide, and the flip
ladies adopted in its place a fort of lteeple-fhaped W,
head-drefs, or rather of the form of a fpire, made by N 4:!
rolling a piece of linen into the form of a long cone. K ill
Over this lofty cap was thrown a piece of fine lawn or QB
muflin, which defcended almoft to the ground, and
formed, as it were, two Wings. A ihort tranfparent Sim
veil was thrown over the face, and reached not quite i
to the chin, refembling rather clofely the veils in ufe I I ,
among our ladies of the prefent day (1864). The we -e;
whole head-drefs, indeed, has been preferved by the l
No. 69. A Lady's
Norman peafantry ; for 1t may be obferved that,
during the feudal ages, the fafhions in France and
England were always identical. Thefe fteeple head-dreH'es greatly pro-
voked the indignation of the clergy, and zealous preachers attacked them
roughly in their fermons. A French monk, named Thomas Conecte,
ditlinguifhed himfelf efpecially in this crufade, and inveighed againit
the head-dreis with fuch effect, that we are affured that many of the
women threw down their head-dreffes in the middle of the fermon, and
made a bonfire of them at its conclufion. The zeal of the preacher foon
extended itfelf to the populace, and, for a while, when ladies appeared in
this head-drels in public, they were expofed to be pelted by the rabble.
Under fuch a double perfecution it difappeared for a moment, but when
the preacher was no longer prefent, it returned again, and, to ufe the
words